Modern vehicles come equipped with complicated electronics systems that control numerous aspects of the driving experience. These systems are capable of cross-communication, as well as communication with vehicle sensors and other data providers. Such communication typically occurs over one or more vehicle controller area network (CAN) BUSSES.
Since there are a large number of electronic control units (ECUs) provided to many vehicles on the road, it is common to have multiple BUSSES in a single vehicle. Routing signals between these BUSSES often relies on a database, identifying which ECU is on which vehicle BUS. BUS communication occurs by putting a data signal on a network, and then the particular ECU to which the signal applies actually chooses the data signal, and the other ECUs on the network ignore the signal. That is, signals are not necessarily sent directly to a module address, which is why the database of which ECUs are on which networks can be useful.
The above schema may commonly be used for certain CAN messages, but in other instances the CAN messages may simply be widely broadcast to all vehicle networks, to ensure an intended module receives the message. The illustrative embodiments propose improvements to both methodologies.